Imran | Pakistan

The Supreme Court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing of PTI Founder Imran Khan’s bail pleas in eight May 9 cases until August 12 without issuing notices as requested by the ex-premier’s lawyer. In November 2024, a Lahore anti-terrorism court had denied Imran bail in the cases related to the May 9, 2023 riots, including an attack on the house of the Lahore corps commander. The incarcerated PTI leader’s plea challenging that was also rejected by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on June 24. Subsequently, Imran moved the apex court last week against the LHC’s rejection of his bail pleas. A two-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi and including Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui took up those applications today. PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja appeared before the court on behalf of Imran, as his main counsel, Salman Safdar, could not attend the hearing due to being out of the country. Raja informed the bench that Safdar has applied for an adjournment of the hearing till next week. He requ...

Multiple users on social media platform X have been sharing a purported document since Thursday, titled “catering guidelines” from the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC — where PTI founder Imran Khan’s sons recently dined during their visit to the US capital — claiming the club does not serve halal food. However, the document is fake. Earlier this month, Imran’s sons — Sulaiman Khan, 28, and Kasim Khan, 26 — kicked off a campaign calling for their father’s release from prison. The siblings are currently in the US and holding engagements with lawmakers for this purpose in Washington, DC. On July 25, the X account of PML-N Digital shared a post with an image of the two siblings at Capitol Hill Club, a private clubhouse in Washington, DC, with Republican Congressman Joe Wilson. The post was captioned: “Imran Niazi’s sons’ illicit feasting”, with an additional claim: “Capitol Hill Club, where Kasim and Sulaiman ate, doesn’t even have halal food available.” The post also shared an alleged document claiming to sh...

Incarcerated PTI founder and ex-prime minister Imran Khan has decried the lack of any “meaningful momentum” for the party’s planned August 5 protest and ordered its members to immediately shun all their differences. Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023. He has issued a nationwide protest call, which will reach its “peak” on Aug 5 to mark the second year of his incarceration in multiple cases. However, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur appeared to disrupt the nationwide protest plans and sow confusion by introducing a new 90-day timeline for what he described as ‘a final push’. PTI Punjab chief organiser Aliya Hamza Malik later voiced her reservations about his announcement. The resulting discord in the party leadership and ranks had prompted Imran to prohibit his party members from publicly discussing the party’s internal...

Incarcerated PTI Founder Imran Khan’s sons met with United States President Donald Trump’s key aide Richard Grenell on Tuesday as they kicked off a campaign calling for their father’s release from prison. Imran’s sons — Sulaiman Khan, 28, and Kasim Khan, 26 — called attention to their father’s incarceration for the first time publicly in May. Earlier this month, Imran’s sister Aleema Khan said Sulaiman and Kasim will go to the US before coming to Pakistan as part of a movement calling for the ex-premier’s release. Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in a £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the protests of May 9, 2023. Grenell, US special presidential envoy for special missions — known for publicly calling for Imran’s release — posted on X that he had met with Sulaiman and Kasim in California, urging them to “stay strong”. “There are millions of people around the world who are sick of political prosecutions...

PTI founder Imran Khan has prohibited his party members from publicly discussing the party’s internal matters, according to his conversation with his family and lawyers at Adiala Jail shared on his official X account on Wednesday. On Sunday, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur seemed to throw a wrench in the works of a nationwide protest, annou­nced by Imran, which is expected to climax on August 5, marking two years of the former prime minister’s imprisonment. At a press conference on Sunday, where party leaders were expected to announce the plan for this protest, CM Gandapur caused confusion when he came up with a new 90-day timeline for what he called ‘a final push’, with PTI Punjab chief organiser Aliya Hamza Malik later expressing her reservations over this announcement. “Publicly airing internal matters or individual concerns before the media is entirely unacceptable,” Imran’s post read. “My instruction is firm: whether a senior officeholder or a junior member, no one is to express inter...

PML-N leaders have issued differing statements on whether PTI founder Imran Khan’s sons would be allowed entry into Pakistan to run a political movement for their father’s release, with Senator Irfan Siddiqui saying they “can stage protests but within legal limitations”. Imran’s sons — Suleman Khan (28) and Kasim Khan (26) — had called attention to their father’s incarceration for the first time publicly in May. Earlier this week, Imran’s sister Aleema Khan said the two brothers would come to Pakistan as part of an upcoming PTI protest movement. Imran, imprisoned since August 2023 in a case related to state gifts, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million graft case and and faces pending trials related to the May 9, 2023 riots. Speaking on Geo News’ programme ‘Geo Pakistan’ today, Irfan Siddiqui said: “In my personal opinion — as the government has so far not taken any official stance — they should be allowed to come. They should come and carry out their activities.” He noted that the sons ...

Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Tuesday filed an application in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for an early hearing of the plea for the suspension of their conviction in the £190m Al-Qadir Trust case, in which both of them face a 14-year and a seven-year prison term, respectively. Imran and Bushra were convicted on January 17 in the case which alleges that the couple obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalise Rs50 billion identified and returned to the country by the United Kingdom during the previous PTI government. On January 27, the couple moved IHC against the decision, asking the court to set aside their conviction, emphasising that the ruling lacked credible evidence and suffered from procedural lapses. In an application filed on behalf of Imran, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, it was requested that an early hearing be fixed without any further delay, as it is a question of “liberty and freedom”. It was stated t...

The Lahore High Court on Thursday ruled that the prosecution evidence concerning offences attributed to jailed PTI founder Imran Khan in connection with the May 9, 2023, riots amounted to “conspiracy and abetment”. Following the arrest of the ex-premier on May 9, 2023, from the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) premises, riots erupted across the country and went on for at least 24 hours. Protesters vandalised and torched government buildings and military installations, while also breaking into the residence of the Lahore corps commander. The state subsequently launched a crackdown against him and his party, filing several other cases against Imran since the events of May 9, in many of which he has been acquitted. Imran had approached the LHC seeking post-arrest bail in eight cases of the May 9 riots, including an attack on the corps commander’s residence, in January. The other cases involve attacks on Askari Tower at Liberty, PML-N offices in Model Town, Shadman police station, the burning of police vehicles near ...

Aleema alleges PTI founder not consulted; Barrister Saif insists Imran was briefed

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore on Monday ordered that PTI founder and former premier Imran Khan undergo police polygraph and photogrammetry tests after his refusal. The ATC allowed the police to conduct the polygraph (lie detection) and photogrammetric (facial and voice analysis) test on May 14. The former prime minister, however, refused to undergo them. Last week, Punjab Information Minister Azma Bokhari had assailed the PTI founder for refusing the tests, saying that he either made excuses such as being asleep or eating or claimed that his lawyers were unavailable. She remarked that it appeared he had still not come to terms with being a convict serving court sentences in jail, and stressed that “he needed to understand he was in Adiala Jail, not at his Bani Gala residence.” During today’s hearing, the police submitted a report to the judge about Imran’s refusal to take the test, arguing that the investigation could not be completed without the results. Legal Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)...

I won't accept slavery, says Imran

A special court in Islamabad on Tuesday instructed the Adiala Jail authorities to allow PTI founder Imran Khan to hold a telephone conversation with his sons abroad and also be allowed a medical checkup by his personal physician. Last month, Special Judge Central Shahrukh Arjum­and approved two petitions filed on behalf of Imran related to the requests. The court had sought a response from Adiala authorities to provide the facilities. Today, the judge heard a request by the prison authorities against the court order and dismissed it A report to the judge from the jail superintendent on Monday had called for the court’s orders on January 10 and February 3 to be reviewed and set aside due to “being inconsistent and contrary to the basic rights and principle of recognition of the inherent dignity and equal inalienable rights of inmates”, arguing that extending the two facilities to Imran would be against the spirit of the Constitution, as well as Pakistan Prison Rules. A court order issued today, available with ...

In a rare public appearance, former prime minister Imran Khan’s sons — Suleman Khan (28) and Qasim Khan (26) — called attention to their father’s incarceration. Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the May 9, 2023, protests. This is the first time the two have publicly talked about their father’s incarceration. They were allowed by a court in November 2023 to contact him every week, but these talks, according to them, have not always been facilitated. In an interview with X influencer Mario Nawfal on why they chose to speak out now, Qasim said: “We’ve gone through the legal routes. We’ve gone through every route that we thought would potentially get him out. We never thought he would be in there a fraction of how long he’s been in there. And it’s only getting worse. And, so, we’ve somewhat run out of those options. And now we’ve decided the only route of taking act...